Importance of the Love of Nature

Just imagine for a moment that you were God before the creation of anything. You are alone with no interactions with other beings and there is nothing to enjoy or look upon. Would you like to spend eternity in this state? So, from God's point of view, why do you think an all-knowing being needed to create things? It was so He could have an object partner and a realm of object partners to love.  They would eat and live in love and return to God's original world and eternal kingdom of love for eternity with Him. In other words, God needed a partner in order to feel the stimulation of love. Today, many religious people believe that because God is all-knowing and powerful that the world was created when simple words were spoken. They do not realize that the world was created in stages or different time periods that correlate to the six days of creation that are referred to in the Bible account in Genesis. God invested all of His being, all the energy He had to create the universe and all of creation. He did so as a gift for His beloved sons and daughters, His beloved family of the future by investing all the power of love He had. Thus, we should look at things of creation with this kind of understanding. God's will in creating the world  God experienced great joy when He was creating all things. After creation was complete, He said that it was good. This means there was joy.  Joy is what you feel when you have finally achieved a certain purpose.  Since all things contain God's consciousness of purpose, He was able to feel joy with them. The world of restoration will be a world that is populated with people who have a connection of heart where they can sing and praise God even when looking at an individual masterpiece of the creation. This is where God sees the value of personality. The story of Saint Francis preaching to animals animals is a dream-like story.  But it is a true story. Everything in creation is made by God as a textbook so that His beloved sons and daughters could learn and nurture the ideal of love. Through observation of penguins int he Arctic, we see how important community and family is to the survival and well-being of the family. By observing nature, we will not only learn about God, but also how to create the world of peace. Minerals function through a relationship of subject partner and object partner. Protons and electrons within atom relate on a subject-object relationship. Without interacting, these elements would cease to exist.  If they are not in motion, they cannot continuously exist. The universe was created to relate to the central point which is human beings. The universe is a mysterious world. God did not create the universe as something to fool around or play with.  He created using the most devoted efforts for the sake of his beloved people. So, when we look at this universe, we should have an extremely grateful heart toward the Father who created it for us. When you walk around a blooming garden in the summer, beholding the trees, plants, flowers, and birds and watch the streams flow, feel the wind blow with this heart of appreciation, you cannot help but be overwhelmed with wonder. Perfection of the universe involves the external and our innermost self to rejoice.  In rejoicing, both our mind and body must be joyful, and all the cells must be delighted. The cells of my eyes and those at the bottom of the feet are different, but this has to be a world where these cells, too, can rejoice. The cells in our hands and all the cells in our entire body including the mind can rejoice as well. While doing so, they should not stay separated but become connected in the resonant joy of love which is based on dual purpose.  Only then will the universe reach perfection. Connections start from extremely small things.  You are a living body which consists of as many as 400 trillion cells which are connected together. In the ideal world centered on God, among all of existence, there is none that came into being from outside God's heart. You are consisted of as many as 400 trillion cells connected together in your living body.  A poet who can feel these kinds of emotions for God's creation would be a great poet once he began to write a sonnet. If there were a poet who could feel and express a cosmic heart when seeing a leaf shake, he would thus become a poet of the universe. We may not know of all the phenomena that is unfolding in heaven and on earth, but without us knowing, there are things that exist together with God's love. When you enter a meditative state, you can see that even a small grain of sand contains all of the principles of the universe.  Even one small atom contains the bottomless and inexhaustible harmony of the universe. Even science cannot deny that all of existence is the result of a complex force, although we are unable to clearly understand it. Atoms exist below molecules and elementary particles exist below atoms. These forms do not exist below molecules and elementary particles exist below atoms. These forms do not unconsciously exist, but have a certain consciousness and purpose. Therefore, we should clearly and fully understand the fact that all things in existence appeared through the loving hands of God and exist in a necessary relationship of heart with God. What kind of people are the enlightened masters? They are those with a heart so deep that they recognize even the value of one stem of grass as equal to their own and can cry out "God!"  They would be of the highest level of enlightened masters. Those who can sing its value this way would be the artists of the highest caliber. If there are people with this heart that could allow them to discover the charm of God's love and heart in every variety of creation, in all their forms and colors, then befriend them and find enjoyment together, they would be the people who could represent the entire universe. If there were people whose cells could move one by one with this type of feeling, they would be the lords of creation. Conversely, if there is a person who knows about nothing but eating, can he become the lord of creation? Nature is a textbook teaching the ideal of love. People observe and learn from nature as they grow up. From playing with and interacting with nature, they will come to understand what the insect world is like.  When you listen carefully on an autumn night while the full moon and the stars shine, then the sounds of the insects are like an orchestra. Why do they like to make such a sound at night? They do so because they are looking for their ideal partners. They are whispering love throughout the night. Birds and all other animals also follow this same common denominator of love when they make happy and sad sounds. They are low on the scale and far away form the axis, and yet they are circling around in parallel.  This is the same for all existent beings. There are three types of bird songs. First, there is a song which expresses his hunger. Second, a song which expresses his love for a mate. Third there is a song which is sun in time of danger.  These are all different.  We ordinary people do not know this small detail about nature, but only know about their own world. Around what does a birds life revolve? Hunger is taken care of simply by eating, and they do not face danger everyday either.  Most of their singing goes back and forth in the give and take relationship with their partner. If you were to sit out on the porch one Sunday afternoon, you could catch the call of two birds separated on different trees exchanging bird calls. It is a beautiful sound. Human beings were also created as a pair - subject partner and object partner. The world of all things also exists for the sake of humankind, creates harmony under the law of love and then manifests its life and ideal through the love of humankind. This would have been the maturing Adam and Eve.  The created world of all things was to be a textbook of love, a museum that infinitely displayed the essence of love. All of nature exists in pairs and harmonizes with each other through love. Flowers and butterflies relate as two opposite poles, yet they find a way to harmonize with each other. This is the harmonious relationship of heaven and earth.  The opposite poles of the universe create harmony through love. It is the same with migratory birds. Birds that live in the south migrate north, and birds from the north migrate to the south, loving each other back and forth as they cross the regions. Through this, they are able to revolve around love. People learn about love through this textbook in the museum God created. When people and God love each other in joy, then all things in heaven and earth will follow their rhythm and harmonize around them. If God likes this, and loves this, the angelic world will also like it. The entire created world will like this, too. It would applaud and offer praise for such unity between mankind and God. Songbirds would sing praises and flower that blossom in the fields would offer praises through their scents. This created world exists in order to expand the fragrant atmosphere in which the central personages of the highest love can enjoy themselves.  Even large ugly toads make croaking sounds when they make love. They kick their legs and move them up and down while they delight in love.  This is the highest art which God created. When it is time for spring to come, whenever you hear the birds sing, as soon as you hear the song, you should think of your wife, your children, your country, the world and even God. When you think in this way, then everything is complete. Birds can only think of their own existence, but people have a sense of being in relationships with other people. This relationship in the human world is the mediator between the animal world, plant world and the spirit world as an exclusive privilege to human beings. Only human beings have this special authority. As Adam and Eve matured, they would have come to understand their purpose through observing the animal world.  They would have understood how to make love. God laid out the world of all things as a textbook for humans to understand how to bring the ideal of human love to maturity. As Adam and Eve continued to grow toward maturity they had different feelings toward each other. They knew that they were brothers and sisters in the past but now they have different feelings for one another. Love is like a nerve. It is the same as pulling on a strand of hair that pulls the entire body with it.  If we pull on the love strand, the universe itself is pulled along with it. As motion is created in love, the entire universe will come into harmony, too. When love is present, we dance. Is this how dancing came about? It was because of love.  So, when there is love, we dance.  It was through the experience of love. Songs came into being because of love and so did laughter. If love was to be taken away, everything would become hard and stiff. People like butterflies more than bees, because butterflies dance as they fly.  Everything which flies has a rhythm and a beat with a melody. Fast-flying creatures fly in time with a beat.  So do slow-flying ones. There are various styles of flight, but everything flies according to a certain rhythm. The way deer run and rabbits lay in the mountains is musical.  The way they hop around has a certain rhythm, too. The way they eat has a musical quality. This is the same for people.  We eat with a certain rhythm as well.  These all express something musically. If we think in this way, we should feel thankful to God that someone made this universe for me to last for eternity and put it in place for me.  We should feel grateful to Him. We should not think as an onlooker as if it has nothing to do with us, but understand the depth of creation. Photos Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net Return for Tomorrow's Post: Reason Religious Conflict Continues This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, Cheon Seong Gyeong Book three, 'True Love', Chapter Two, Section 9

Love Nation, World, Humankind = World Peace

Just like God, love is not flat.  Once you are united with God in oneness, a circular motion manifests in all kinds of forms and figures. This is why the older sibling must love the younger by following the examples of their parents who love them as well. Love will blossom within a family that is united in this way. That love becomes the love within a society and then the love within a nation.  In this this expansion of heart, it will later become the love of the whole world.  This is how world peace will be established - through the family. Love of the Nation, Love of the World, and Love of Humankind When you look at the world it is composed of many nations. Nations are composed of societies.  Societies are made of of tribes. These tribes are made up of families which are two individuals coming together. Those who sacrifice their lives to live for the public purpose of humankind will come together centering on their love for humankind. Likewise, have a love for their homeland, they will unite based on patriotic ideas. As their patriotic feelings grow stronger, the citizens will unite through their patriotism in order to establish a nation. You must build relationship and gather people of like mind together once you know you have the responsibility to work on the patriotic movement.  The base where genuine love can settle down is the family. Therefore, the original family that embodies the love of the universe will expand the domain of love in the universe and be protected by the universe. We should go beyond the family level and walk the patriotic path of loving the nation.  Furthermore, we must go beyond race and nation and go toward the path of loving the world. Those who love their family are children of filial piety and virtuous wives.  Those who love their nation are patriots.  What do we call those who love the world?  We call them saints. The path of children of filial piety, patriots, saints, and divine sons and daughters How do you become a global figure? You cannot become one by just human morality or making people your central concern. If you are only concerned with human beings, then you will not be able to go beyond the national level. It is that which is of heaven that will enable you to step beyond the national level. If you do not have a philosophy that embraces heaven and earth, then you cannot go beyond the national level. If you look at the ranks of the saints, they revered God or did they not revere him?  Is there any saint that did not have God?  They all upheld God's will as their standard way of living. Thus, the saints have spoken about God tremendously, not just about humankind.  Moreover, the saints have taught not only the way of morality, but the path of the heavenly law. Children of filial piety serve and love their parents in a family.  Those who serve and love the nation are patriot. Those who love the world are saints. Then, what is it that I teach? It is to be a divine son or daughter who loves God, the world, and the universe. Which will you be? Will you be a divine son or daughter, or a dutiful son or daughter?  Love is the essence that moves reality. It cannot be omitted from daily life or from history.  Love provides the internal power which moves everything from a parent's body to our social institutions. This is why, when you are educated, you are taught to love your country. You are taught, brotherly love, parental love, conjugal love and worldwide philanthropy of your country. All of these contain love. What does this mean?  It means that we cannot connect to history without including love which is the realm of people's daily lives and the course of history. What do you have to become? You must become a patriot.  A patriot devotes one's effort to serve the people as they would serve the nation's ruler.  What is a child of filial piety?  They are those who devote all their efforts toward their parents. Those who devote themselves to their brothers and sisters as they would serve their parents are children of filial piety. Saints are people who have sacrificed themselves until now and died for the sake of all humankind. What is a divine son or daughter?  Those who reach out to the world centering on God and serve mankind as they would serve God are divine sons and daughters. Historical saints are those who have died for the sake of the people of the world.  Divine sons and daughters are loyal to God, but as they live for God they also live for the sake of all people.  Being a saint does not make you a divine son and daughter or God's child. What is next level after you become a child of filial piety, a patriot and a saint?  No matter how much you have loved the nation's ruler and its people, you have to know the laws of the heavenly royal palace to be a divine son and daughter.  You have to live in the rhythm with the palace law. A filial child's heart goes straight to his parents without changing. The same goes for the patriot whose heart goes straight to the king.  The saint, likewise, has a heart that goes straight toward God without changing. In other words, you can be a child of filial piety, a patriot and saint only when your heart goes straight without changing even in a situation where you may face death. A filial child serves and loves the parents in the family.  The one who serves and loves the country is the patriot and the one who serves and loves the world is the saint. You should be divine sons and daughters who love the world and universe.  Once you have such a broaden love, you must have as much love as God. The child of filial piety lives on even when his household perishes.  This is why there are epitaphs of children of filial piety, patriot and saints. Divine sons and daughters are people who know how to observe not only national laws, but also the laws of the heavenly royal palace. Thus, that which can connect straight to the path of children of filial piety, patriots and the path of saints is the path of the divine sons and daughters. Our life course can be condensed into the life paths walked by filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters. Would they be paths driven by the heart of wanting to be together and live together regardless of the upper and the lower, transcending front and back, left and right, and day and night, and going beyond one's own life? This is the conclusion that has emerged. No matter how outstanding a person may be, he is of no use if he has no love.   Also, happiness becomes connected based on love. The medium that connects brothers and sisters, friends, countrymen, all humankind and heaven on earth is love.  Love is like yeast. God created the universe and established its law.  What kind of being is He? He is the Being who stands as the representative caring for others more than anyone else.  This is God. Therefore, if you want to meet God, you have to live for the sake of others.  God is the king of knowledge, but he will not tell you to come to Him with knowledge. Although He is the king of capability, He would not tell you to approach Him with capability. God is the king of money, power and knowledge, He does not need these things. God would tell you that anyone can come to Him that lives for the sake of others.  God exists in front of human beings for their own sake. This is why we want to follow God forever.  If you want to maintain your own position of existence living within the natural law, you must exist for the sake of others as the universe does. Through serving others, you connect to the East and the West, and to the past and the present.  God has the same love in the past that He has now in the present. God can overcome the East and the West and overcome the past and the present, and even the future. Therefore He is able to unify them into one.  How is He able to do this? He unifies them only in love. Return for Tomorrow's Post: The Importance of the Love of Nature This Post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, "Cheon Seong Gyeong, "True Love", Book Three, Chapter Two, Section 8

The Love of Siblings Teaches Love of Parent

The ideal of family has changed over the last decades beginning after World War II. You can even see the change in ideals from the 'Leave to Beaver' family structure of mother cooking at home raising the children and the father as the overseer of the family. There are significant reasons why this is so.   God fought a hard battle with Satan in the second world war in order to bring about a world where He could substantially rule. Instead, after winning the battle, Satan was able to claim that foundation because there was no unity with the returning Messiah and the Christian world. In fact, he suffered greatly and was rejected by the established churches. Therefore, he had to walk his own path of 40 years of suffering to establish God's foundation on the earth. If the religious world had followed his directions given from God at that time, based on the teachings of the Divine Principle, the world of peace would have been established in that time. At that time the world of family tradition still followed the ways of God compared to the times of today where divorce, wife swapping and second/third husbands is the new trend. Now we stand on a solid foundation where God can truly come directly to do His work through the foundation of families. Why did God give us family, our brothers and sisters?   Why did He make such a unit? We need brothers and sisters so we can look at them and realize that our mother and father must have been like that when they were younger. Children can see through his brothers and sisters the process of his mother grew up. Sisters can observe elder brothers and understand how her father grew up and lived.  You should know that this is the love among siblings.  You can become one by growing up in this environment.  Should you love your brothers and sisters or not? What if parents have only one son and only one daughter? Then the son needs an elder sister and an elder brother doesn't he? The daughter needs an elder brother and an elder sister. Furthermore, they need a younger brother and young sister. Through them you come to appreciate and love who your parents are. It is unfortunate if you do not have them. What if parents have only one son and one daughter? The son needs an elder sister and an elder brother, doesn't he? Also the daughter needs an elder brother and elder sister. Furthermore, they need a younger brother and younger sister. There needs to be an elder brother, an elder sister, a younger brother, and a younger sister. It is unfortunate if you do not have them. Brotherly love is a model of love for all the people of the world. A family that has a younger sister, younger brother, elder sister and elder brother has achieved complete unity and will receive God's protection. America has moved away from the tradition of larger families and some have even forsook marriage or having children at all. The elder brother and elder sister means east and west, and the younger brother and younger sister mean north and south.  When this pattern is completed there will be three dimensions. This family becomes the origin of a clan, a people, and a nation upon expansion.  When such a principle of love takes root, the origin of peace will be established. When an elder brother loves his younger sister, and the younger sister loves her elder brother, they cannot just love one another, they must also involve their parents in that love. They can cherish their childhood experiences of growing up in the bosom of their parents. They should be a brother and sister who are connected on the basis of parent and child of oneness. Only then will they be able to ascend as they grow up. They should grow up like this all the way through elementary and middle school. However far you go in your travels around the world and throughout life, nothing will be able to replace the love of your brothers and sisters in a family who share the same blood from their birth. When you go out to society, is there anyone who is closer to you than your brother or sister? Although some people may be close, they will eventually drift away from you. Why do you need brothers and sisters? They are those who are connected to the vertical (spiritual) and horizontal (physical) plane. If Adam and Eve are horizontal, then God and Adam and Eve are vertical.  At this intersection it creates a plane. This is why both a horizontal setting and the front and back are needed. Through their unification, a sphere is formed. Therefore, when the love of brothers and sisters expand to a love for all the people of the world, then sibling love transcends family. Only when we can embrace the world and love all people with sibling love,will we join everything together in an ideal sphere of love. When this occurs, no mishap will severely shock us; all the substance of God's thought finally bear fruit. God's ideal of children unites and bears fruit there: the fruit of children's love, the fruit of siblings' love, the fruit of the love of husband and wife and the fruit of parents' love, the fruit of siblings' love, the fruit of the love of husband and wife, and the fruit of parents' love. When God's original world of creation is finally manifested on earth, upper and lower, front and rear, and left and right will be merged with Him. Through brothers and sisters, a nation arises and all humankind arises. The brother and sister relationship signifies front and back like a flat surface, but when flesh is added then a sphere is formed. So, it is brothers and sisters and the people of the nation who from this sphere. Brothers and sisters expand to become a people, and the love of brothers and sisters is connected with the love of the world. A family where there are many brothers and sisters growing up is like a model to embrace all people of the world. This family creates an ideal Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. Hence, brothers and sisters expand in number.  When there are many siblings, two may have to share a plate at mealtime. They do not fight because there is only one plate of rice. Even if there are many siblings and they have to suffer to live in hardship, if they have such a heart of love that says, "Although I may starve, I will give this to my elder sister," or "I have to give this to my younger brother or sister," then everything will work out very well. Return for tomorrow's post: Love Nation, World, Humankind = World Peace This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Three, "True Love" Chapter Two, Section 7